Memorandum from L-3 Communications UK
L-3 Communications UK Ltd is pleased to submit
evidence to the House of Commons Defence Select Committee as part
of its inquiry into ISTAR and the role of UAVs.
Headquartered in New York, L-3 Communications
is an international defence company employing over 64,000 people
worldwide and is a prime systems contractor in aircraft modernisation
and maintenance, C3ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence,
Surveillance and Reconnaissance), Systems and Government Services.
L-3 Communications is also a leading provider of high technology
products, sub-systems and systems.
L-3 Communications has a proud history of cooperation
and success with the Royal Air Force in airborne intelligence,
surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance capabilities.
The company was recently selected by the MoD as the preferred
bidder for Projects HELIX, IBS (Integrated Broadcast System) and
LISTENER. All of these are key programmes at the centre of the
UK's future ISTAR capability. L-3 Communications has a growing
presence in the United Kingdom with sites across the UK at Tewkesbury,
Bristol, Barrow, Burgess Hill, Alton and Bracknell.
The demand for situational awareness, force
protection and operational overwatch in Iraq and Afghanistan is
fueling the demand for Full Motion Video and UAVs are transforming
UK forces' ability to deliver this information to the front line
commands. In addition, weaponised UAVs are enabling commanders
to shorten the "kill chain", thus allowing the current,
asymmetric fleeting target to be attacked. Furthermore, in counter-insurgency
operations, where the coalition has air supremacy, UAVs can range
across the entire area of operation, with their relatively small
field of view sensors providing tactical support to front line
forces.
A key feature of UAVs is the Tactical Datalinks
that provide the specialised information infrastructures. These
underpin low latency shared situational awareness and command
and control, enabling the prosecution of "difficult, fleeting
targets" by providing for the near-real time exchange of
information. Current operations have shown that the critical information
requirement throughout the Find, Fix and Finish spectrum of operations
is the dissemination of Full Motion Video to both headquarters
and front line troops.
Traditionally, new platforms and sensors have
provided an attendant downlink and viewing device, leading inevitably
to a growing logistic burden as the scale of operations, enemy
behaviour and our burgeoning "Find" Capability has led
to an increase in platforms such as UAVs. In order to resolve
the operational and logistic burden of servicing multiple FMV
feeds, the L-3 CSW ROVER has been developed as a "One Solution
Remote Viewing Terminal" offering the operator a wide-band,
multiple frequency device for viewing the Full Motion Video output
of the majority of the Joint and Combined deployed ISTAR sensors
and targeting pods.
The future ROVERs will be characterised by high
capacity, improved security, joint and multi-national interoperability
and a greater spread of capability—not just in the land
mounted and dismounted roles but in fixed and rotary wing and
maritime platforms, as well as NATO and coalition partners. The
linked exploitation of Tactical Datalinks will be a key operational
transformational factor and will provide the backbone of information
dissemination for the foreseeable future, cementing the UAVs role
in the "find" constellation. Over time, this growing
Tactical Data Link capability will lead to the evolution of Remote
Viewing Terminals into core elements of C4I infrastructures. FMV
will become as common as today's command and control tool, the
Map and Voice Combat Net Radio.
Turning to the constraints in the current generation
of UAVs, on particular operational missions a vital element in
the derivation of an opponent's intent is provided by the collection,
fusion and dissemination of signals in the electromagnetic spectrum.
With over 40 years' experience in the provision of manned assets
in the electronic surveillance domain, L-3/Integrated Systems
plays a key role in providing strategic, theatre and tactical
support to both US and UK war fighters. One of the key elements
that must be understood is the impact of the laws of physics in
addressing the technically sophisticated, as well as the simple
radio frequency targets in today's complex and challenging environment.
Indeed, the challenge today is no longer finding the needle in
a haystack, it is finding the right needle in a stack of needles.
Studies in both the US and UK have identified
that a mix of capabilities, both manned and unmanned, is required
in the future for successful operations across the spectrum of
conflict and in the range of scenarios in which UK and US forces
are and could be engaged.
Unless networked together, the laws of physics
intervene and the sensor capability of the current generation
of UAVs is unable to deliver the required accuracy or the sensitivity
to prosecute the modern target set. (Singular, fleeting targets
require more accuracy and more accuracy requires either more platforms/sensors
or networked sensors to cover more of the electro-magnetic spectrum
from more angles to quickly resolve the target position). In order,
therefore, to achieve the geolocation of a target emitter to the
accuracy that modern operations demand, a broader, networked capability
is required.
This capability can currently be best derived
from a large airliner-sized asset with the ability to carry a
large array, networked to the smaller sensor platforms, with the
computing power to fuse the data collected and then to report
to the wider community the intelligence and information derived.
In future, the types of targets that UAVs can
prosecute will increase, thus increasing their tactical value
and driving the requirement for the dissemination of Full Motion
Video yet further. A force mix of the large manned platform, however,
which acts as the host for off-board processing of UAV collected
data connected to the capabilities that are resident in the space
segment, offers the optimum mix of assets to successfully prosecute
and derive the required intelligence.
This balance will allow UK forces to achieve
greater shared situational understanding and to underpin the improved
decision support UK commanders need in today's and tomorrow's
complex battlespace.
30 May 2008
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